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City Talk: Developments put focus on Savannah's squares

Moise is the major donor who made it possible for the completion of the Haitian Monument in Franklin Square. Last week, two more bronze figures were added to the four installed in 2007.

With the monument now complete, the base looks better, although it is still too massive and the etched text is too obtrusive. Some may recall that the original drawings had a much smaller base with more understated text.

The original design would have left the focus almost entirely on the uniformed figures commemorating the 500 or so free black volunteers from Haiti who took part in the 1779 Battle of Savannah.

While it's great to see the monument completed, I still have some doubts about the whole process. I think the city and the citizens should be more involved in choosing designs for new monuments, and it seems simply poor policy to allow the installation of an unfinished monument.

Not far from Franklin Square, the landscaping of Ellis Square continues. Let's hope the fencing will be down before year's end.

It's especially nice to see improvements like those in Franklin and Ellis in light of the American Planning Association's selection of our squares as one of the 10 Great Public Spaces.

"The foresight of Oglethorpe's design," says the APA website, "continues to provide an extraordinary example of how public space provides a timeless and lasting amenity to a community."

And at least one of our squares is going to be on the big screen again soon. In recent days, film crews have been readying one square for Robert Redford's "The Conspirator."

Our squares are an amazing resource, but they could do even more for us, as Fred Kent with the Project for Public Spaces noted in a talk here earlier this year.

I'm always surprised that more downtown organizations don't hold events in the squares nearby, but maybe we need to have in place better policies to encourage occasional public uses.

I'm thinking especially of a square like Pulaski, which many days I find the most beautiful of all of them. The lack of a major monument puts the emphasis on the twisting live oaks, which have been beautifully nurtured through the decades.

But the groundcover takes up much of the public space, making it difficult to use the square for anything more than the smallest of gatherings.

If the squares are indeed "public living rooms," as the American Planning Association appropriately calls them, then it might be nice if we were doing more living in them.

City Talk appears every Sunday and Tuesday. Bill Dawers can be reached at billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 East 32nd St., Savannah, Ga. 31401.